


Dawn, With Arms of Roses

by Varynova



Series: The Slashfic Conspiracies [2]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Law Enforcement, Alternate Universe - Western, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Gags, Light Bondage, Strap-Ons, mild Self-harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:54:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23042836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varynova/pseuds/Varynova
Summary: A reorganization of the D&D alternate-universe vignettes I wrote about Cash Diamond (Funn's player character, who also did the illustrations) as a deputy sheriff and Nylth Keth as a sultry lawbreaker together in a lesbian spaghetti western, of sorts. Together with some newly released saucy adult content.Title is from Sappho's Fragments.
Relationships: Original Drow Character(s)/Original Tiefling Character(s)
Series: The Slashfic Conspiracies [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1655965
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These vignettes are unconnected, like a supercut of the best makeout scenes of your favorite TV show. Different episodes, but they contribute to a greater plotline, I think. They paint a picture. This chapter contains mild self-harm and mentions alcohol.

The end of Cash's whip finally spirals around Nylth's foot and she trips, tasting the bitter iron of dirt mixing with blood in her mouth. She rolls on the ground, kicks both her knees. But she can't dislodge it, so she gazes up at the drow woman on horseback, broad and behatted silhouette cut against the late-morning sun. She sneers a blue sneer. "Well, cowgirl, glad to see you enjoy playing with rope as much as I do. You've caught me, now what are you gonna _do_ with me?"

Cash rolls her eyes and slumps from the back of her horse, bending down to grab the handcuffs joining Nylth's arms behind her back. "This's gone on long enough. You're goin' away."

"Little old me? Why, lawman. I thought you'd taken a shining to me given how long it took to finally track me down." Nylth bats her big reds. "Take these cuffs off and I'll show you my appreciation for all of your hard work, hm?"

Cash tilts her hat over her eyes, as if blocking out the glare of the sun reflecting from saloon windows. "Nice try. Get walkin'."

Nylth clicks her tongue. "Shame." She flicks a finger, and after a short incantation prods it into the cuffs surrounding her arms. She hisses as red-hot metal chars away, melting free around her hands, and immediately delivers an elbow to the gut of her captor. "Now you've made me sear my pretty little wrists. Couldn't you have at least saved me that indignity, officer Diamond? Well, nothing I can't handle."

But just as she's about to spring free of the foothold, Cash catches her by the ankle and brings her crashing back down to the ground, tackling her with her full weight. "Dammit, y'li'l devil! Just accept that yer beat!"

"Not likely!" Nylth taunts. She sticks her tongue between her teeth, wriggles her shoulders. But she's well-pinned. "Well. Where's all this going?"

\--

The first time they met, Cash hauled Nylth out of the blown-up wall of a bank.

"That woman had a mask!", Nylth protests. "It coulda been anyone."

"Yeah? Wearing yer clothes, matching your distinct description, in this exact place at this exact time?"

"Exactly!" Nylth wrenches one arm free of Cash's hold, pries the leather bandito mask from her mouth. "Anybody."

"Five-foot-seven with blue horns, wings, an' a tail."

"Exactly."

"...Tell it t'the sheriff. You've caused Baron Grimm enough trouble for this week."

"Damn you, copperrrrr," Nylth whines, "he's poisoning the wells. His tin mines are literally leeching toxin into the water supply. We can't let him just get away with that, and we made sure we only damaged his company's deposits. Surely you can see why this is a worthwhile endeavor?"

"Tell it to the _sheriff_."

Nylth sighs. She stops in her tracks, and Cash humors her, for a moment. "Why are you stopping?"

"Why are you? Want to stay behind me, get a good look at the caboose as it leaves the station?"

"The whuh...?"

"My ass, lawbringer. I'm talking about my ass." Nylth cocks her head, still facing forward. "You're staring at it right now, aren't you?"

Cash jolts back, face reddening. She was, but surely only since Nylth called attention to it. Was she? "Why, you li'l--"

But she's gone, blue wings erupting a cloud of dust as Nylth springs from the earth, momentarily freed of Cash's grasp.

"... _Shit_."

\--

Cash and Nylth wake up handcuffed together on their three-day ride back to town from Nylth's Hideout. Nylth has a fresh tattoo on one arm-- and a fresh hangover, judging by the whiff of alcohol Cash catches on the sleeping woman's breath-- she hadn't had the night before, but is somehow still cuffed to Cash even now...

Cash had eaten the key when Nylth had taunted her over how she'd escape by getting Cash to 'give it up' willingly. She's baffled by that one, but at least her charge is still in captivity, so.

Those were Nylth's exact words, too. A sneer on her face, thick eyeliner bringing to bear her huge eyes. "You'll give it up." She sucked her tongue against her teeth. "Willingly."

Cash crosses her legs, waiting for the criminal to awaken. Long ride ahead of them, today.

\--

Cash awakens with a startled gasp. Wherever she is, it's dark, she's upright, and the dust coating her throat won't clear with a concerted cough-- her mouth's been stuffed with a handkerchief, and her hands and feet are bound around a wooden pillar, thick enough that she can't reach backwards around it, or move more than a finger.

A gnome, seeing her startle awake, sits forward in his chair. It takes her a second to even notice him, almost unseen in the low light, but he turns a head. "She's awake!", he bellows. His thin pencil-moustache and slicked hair belie the grubby dirtmarks and tears all down his trousers, the backs of his hands. From someplace, he pulls a knife, corner of his mouth pulling up into a devious smile.

He draws closer to Cash. Her eyes widen, but she can render no more resistance than a vain thrash against her legbonds.

But just as he closes the distance enough to menace, the wooden door slams open. A chilling wave bathes Cash from the crown of her head to her knees; it's Nylth, long strides bringing her immediately to the gnome.

"Hey!", she barks, harsh tone setting Cash's ears ringing. "Don't fuckin' touch her. The fuck are you doing?"

"I-- I mean, I thought we were gonna interrogate her, for--"

"For what?" Nylth glares, incredulously, from the gnome, up to Cash. Cash finds her gaze unable to meet Nylth's, instead wandering off into the ceiling joists of whatever basement she's been tied up in. "She doesn't know a damn thing. We brought her _here_ , remember? We just needed her out of the way for yesterday's job. That was it."

"We're not gonna kill 'er, mom?"

Nylth's face snaps back to stare at the gnome, cheeks blooming with embarrassment. In a low growl, she intones, "I _told_ you not to call me that around prisoners."

"Erp. Sorry, M-Nylth. So, uh--"

"No." Nylth sighs with exasperation, pinches her nose to massage gogglemarks. "C'mon. Her? Don't you think that if she had the barest capacity to interfere with our operations, she would've done it by now?"

It's Cash's turn to blush as Nylth stares at her, mouth thin, almost expectant. She contemplates an indignant grunt around the handkerchief, but knows it'll only make things worse, so she stays verklempt.

"No. Too many complications. Take the Rilanni twins and Olcomb, dump her a half-mile out from town. Untie her legs, she can walk back."

"Won't she... get us?"

Nylth sighs, shoulders slumping. "Don't untie her _hands_. Let her walk back to-- solve a goddamn problem!" She tosses her hands up, beginning to stomp back to the door.

"But there's-- there's rattlers out there, what if _they_ get her?"

"Then they _get_ her. Fix the problem, okay?"

Cash's stomach drops. She hopes it's just from the threat of rattlesnakes.

\--

Nylth goes for a kiss, unprompted, on the floor of the courthouse. It lingers, and for a moment Cash's mind flickers on how she's going to leverage it to escape, this time. She's tried before, lord knows. But it ends, and the blue girl simply smiles. "Sorry. Had to. I believe, however, my friends are here."

An explosion, a searing flash of light, and all is dust. When it clears, she's gone.

\--

Nylth licks her lips, back flat against the wall adjacent her cell. "Why, officer Diamond. Didn't know you cared."

"Shut up." Cash's torn glance follows Nylth's mouth, and she furrows her thick brows. "I shouldn't even be doin' this. But you kissed me the other day, and I couldn't--"

Nylth interrupts, craning her neck forward. "Not even taking the cuffs off? Why, this could be seen by a keen-eyed magistrate to be an abuse of your charges, if they were told the right story."

"Shut _up_." Cash plants a closed fist next to Nylth's head, then flattens it against the cool stone, bringing her mouth to the wanted criminal's again.

"Mmm," Nylth coos. Her hot breath bleeds against Cash's neck. After her tormentor breaks away, the Tiefling smiles with a blush. "What's brought all this on? Certainly not my standing in the community."

"I..." Cash crumbles, knees folding, arms behind her head. "I think I'm in love with you," she confesses, voice laden with gravel. "I think I don't know what I'd do with myself if you ever disappeared."

Nylth bursts into a bout of uncontrollable laughter. "Oh, _officer_. That's embarrassing. I wouldn't give me that sort of power, were I you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains explicit sexual content, light bondage, and mentions alcohol.

Fingers run through Cash Diamond's hair from behind, a gesture concerningly intimate for a crowded barroom setting. She still smiles, though, caught up in the instant between touch and propriety; but as she tries to wheel around to see which deputy is pranking her, another hand wraps around her wrist, making a much less kindly suggestion.

The hand on her head shoves her down to the table. Among the clatter of glassware, gasps of patrons, and the taste of blood muddling the froth of beer against her tongue, Cash sees no fewer than six masked lackeys stand and draw their guns, spread among the tables of revelers.

"Nobody fuckin' move!", a familiar voice belts. "I need to have a little conversation with the officer, here, but once she and I have taken to the upstairs you're free to leave, and you'll find your tabs have been paid. Have a great evening, and we hope you'll help us run Baron Grimm outta town." Nylth didn't even bother with her own mask, this time; she plucks the handguns from the prone constable's holsters, then tosses them to an accomplice. She levers Cash up by the elbow. "Up and at 'em, cowboy."

Cash rises, slowly, with no sudden moves. Her hands find their way skyward, though one takes a detour to collect her hat from the table. "How'd you even get free? The Marshall had you dead to rights! Your sentencing was supposed to be today!"

Nylth snatches the hat from her hand, tosses it into the air, and catches it showily on one of her long, spiralling horns, where it dangles freely. She smirks. "Released on my own recognizance. Hard for a judge to sentence you when you have an alibi bedding his wife at the hour of the crime. She even testified, you shoulda seen his face."

"You fuckin' scoundrel," Cash growls, marching to the staircase. "You won't get away with this."

Nylth nods to her man; he nods back. "Yeah, yeah. I recall your last sermon, padre. Now move it."

\--

The heavy iron lock on the bedroom door clunks shut. The room is empty, dark; the candles on the vanity wait, unlit, and the waning afternoon light diffuses through diaphanous curtains. Even the chest at the foot of the bed, an ancient wooden trunk, lurks, half-clad in shadow.

Instantly the two women embrace, hands cupped around a blue chin or the small of a leather-wrapped back. Cash showers the outside of Nylth's neck with affectionate pecks, feeling each shuddered exhalation against her cheek. She punctuates it with a kiss against Nylth’s excited smile, which Nylth reciprocates; intertwined mouths drag passion across lips, and careful tongues play in comfortable rhythm, giving and taking in turn.

Nylth bunches the shoulders of Cash's duster coat, coaxing it down. She pulls back, lowers herself to nestle the top of her head, just behind the horns, to Cash’s chin. Nylth chuckles. "Pity we had to move. I rather liked you bent over that table, but it's good for morale for the men to not watch me work. And I suppose your damned propriety would object to being taken on a barstool, anyway." She casts the coat to the floor, by the bed, followed by Cash’s hat.

"Wipe that grin off'a yer face." Cash's demeanor has changed, tone now teasing and low rather than the commanding and righteous bellow of their spat downstairs. "Are you gonna tell me what happened? How’d you know where to find me?"

“In time, my goodly gremlin. I’ve secured enough of a reprieve that I could come and see you, and that’s all you need to know.” Nylth backs Cash up, forearms in her arms, waltzing her to the bed. Cash watches Nylth’s tongue run against gleaming top teeth. Deft fingers dart to the top buttons of Cash's shirt, highnecked, deep-brown, and formal, beginning to unfasten them. "We won’t be disturbed in this particular establishment. The matron and I have a... relationship of mutual understanding."

Nylth pops the last one through, casting the shirt open. Cash plops onto the mattress, eager to tug it-- and the white wifebeater underneath-- from her torso, revealing the broad gray cups of her bra, her chiseled abdomen, the curve of her side as it flows away into black leather pants. She braces herself with an arm, wrapping the other around her encroaching paramour, who hikes her knees up onto the bed. "S'zat so? Should I arrest her too, for aidin' and abettin'?"

Nylth squeezes her legs together around Cash and sits forward in her lap. She urges the tall elf back, lying her flat on the comforter, and brings a hand up to tease and whorl through close-cropped white hair. Midriff brushing against revealed skin, Nylth presses herself flush, bared décolletage warm on Cash's chest. "Will you do it with all the incompetence you bring to bear on my organization? If so, by all means, be my guest. Couldn't hurt."

Cash scoffs. But her hands snake around Nylth’s sides to her back, finding comfortable purchase under the hem of her pants. "Y'know, I fuckin' hate you."

Nylth flicks her tail, lashes it into the air. But she merely clicks her tongue, voice saccharine, as if doting on a puppy that's wet the carpet. "I know, miss Diamond, I know. And yet you just can't stay away." Her neck cranes down, lips brushing just against Cash’s, who leans upward, tries to steal a kiss. Nylth assents, pressing her mouth against her captive’s while her fingers busy themselves unhooking Cash’s bra, tossing it to the floor. A single nail drags itself down the prone gray sternum.

Cash screws up her face, flushing scarlet. "You- you say that like you're not to blame for my predicament. Driving a poor woman of the law like ma'self to temptation with all of your..." She glances down, into the convenient window Nylth has placed to her chest, hanging right above her nose. "Wiles."

But when her gaze rises again, Cash finds Nylth twirling her handcuffs around a finger. She hadn't even noticed when they were lifted off her belt, and the Tiefling smirks. Before Cash can blink, Nylth's slapped one onto her wrist and wrapped the chain around the wrought-iron bedframe. Cash tries to wrench her hand back, but can't get it free before she hears the _krrrk_ of gears.

Cash scowls, but Nylth's response is a guffaw. "Scared, cowpoke?" Nylth stands, shifting Cash's legs over in the bed, careful to avoid her free hand’s grabbin’ range.

"Hoppin' mad, more like. I'll be damned if I'm gonna trust the likes a'you with--"

Nylth cuts her off with an overwrought sigh. "Fine. You have my word, hand to Gond, that I won't lay a finger on you that you don't like until you're free of this building. And if that's not enough, here." She fishes two fingers in Cash's duster pocket and brings out the keys, jangling and heavy, to slap into Cash's palm, stuck to the bed. She wraps her hand underneath Cash’s, coaxing her gray fingers closed around the keyring. "Just drop that to the floor and I promise I'll stop whatever exquisite little torments and let you up. Acceptable?"

"You must really be tryin' to piss me off with all these games, you--"

"Is it working, though?" Nylth crawls onto her again, licking her lips.

"I'll fuckin' say!" Nevertheless, the anger in Cash’s eyes melts, for just a moment, and both girls have to stifle a laugh. Cash wraps calloused fingers around the nape of Nylth’s neck, and Nylth twines her own among them, reveling in the caress, pressing them into the low stubble abutting the base of her lazy mohawk. Nylth leans down, sighing into another protracted kiss. She smells a little like pumpkin, maybe vanilla, cinnamon, a hint of ginger. Cash drinks it in, lets it swirl in heady mix down her throat and across her palate.

But Nylth rolls her eyes, shaking her wings out from her body just slightly. "Now, now, officer. You may be the sheriff's dog, but do be a _good_ dog for me, now, would you?" Her grip reasserts itself, bringing Cash’s loose hand up to the head of the bed, and fetters it with its twin. The second cuff clicks shut.

Cash feels her shoulders try to close together, out of pure reflex. But the bedframe holds her fast, keeps her chest exposed, unable to roll or toss Nylth from her perch. Cash hates how the little chides get under her skin, tie her stomach in knots with the aggravating little needles, the implications. Still, she may hate the thought, but she can't deny the truth underneath: she _would_ like to be a good dog.

Nylth’s teasing fingers dance back to her chest, massaging implicative circles inward along Cash’s ample breasts, coaxing her nipples to harden to points. Cash groans, breathes in again, and with each she feels the air growing heavy, words thick in her throat.

Maybe she can't help one last antagonism, though. "Go fuck yerself."

At this, Nylth reaches to the overstuffed chest at the foot of the bed, and fishes through it. Finding a relatively-clean stocking, she balls it up, squeezes Cash's cheeks with the other hand, and pops it into her mouth, right between the teeth.

"Perhaps that'll take the edge off of your rage, hmm? Let that tongue relax a bit. I'm happy for mine to do a bit more work."

The only response is a set of muffled grunts from the woman underneath her, presumably filled with expletives. "Now, now, _officer_. Language like that's unbecoming to a woman of your profession. Besides, I'd rather not fuck _myself_ , if you catch my drift." Nylth raises an eyebrow, and her glance flicks to the fist still crammed full of keys. Cash gives another complaint around the now-damp gag, but the keys remain firmly in place.

Nylth grins and begins to unbutton the officer's pants. She peels them away to the knees, exposing Cash’s undergarments: a pair of skintight cotton boyshorts, slate-gray. Nylth plays two fingers around the line where fabric meets inner thigh, eyes following Cash’s eyes. She kisses down a breast, and with darting tongue laves the whole tip of it, eliciting a sighing groan. Cash rolls her head forward, blush tender, jaw slack.

“Better keep that thing put. If I have to replug your mouth, you _will_ be sorry.” Another effortful grunt, and Cash stiffens, neck rolling back, teeth careful to hold it in place. Fingers trace the inseam of Cash’s intimates all the way up to her crotch, and Nylth lowers her stomach again, unbuttoning her own black trousers to cast off both layers. “There’s a good dog,” she murmurs.

Nylth rests the length of her body along Cash’s, pinning both legs with a knee planted on half-doffed slacks. Her tongue prods between her lips, lightly flicking Cash’s nipple again, and her hand finds it target: Nylth runs it down between her legs and up into her body, slender privates freed from their insidious garment prison and already beading with glistening desire. She sees Cash's eyes following her touch, watching her fingering herself, so she rolls her pelvis forward to ensure she can be seen. To Cash, it looks like a downturned bluebell, an elegant stretch of columbine flowers. Nylth gathers just enough dew between two digits, rubbing them together against her hood, and arches her chest forward, blissful smile blooming across her face. Her fingers part, quick circles at either side of her clit mounting in speed, and she eases her stomach down once more to be in contact with Cash’s.

“Don’t worry, I’d hate for you to feel left out. Though I’m sure you’re already quite enamored with the view, hm?” Nylth slides her other hand between them, flat to Cash’s stomach, teasing at the gentle trail of whitish hairs from her bellybutton down to the band of her underwear. Cash can feel her stomach roil and tense as the hand passes over it, the touch warm and welcome, and she can barely force herself to relax the clenched fist of her gut. Then Nylth slides her fingers down, and laughs impishly. “Ooh, I see we’re still keeping things in proper order. So rigid, officer, so _kempt_. Well, I appreciate a groomed woman.”

Cash’s head rolls back as Nylth’s fingers seek out her favorite little spots, just as she had shown the girl during their first fumbling encounters. Cash feels her cunt, slickened with need, accommodate the delving hand; Nylth spreads her lips apart, carefully slipping a fingertip in. Cash’s hips roll forward on reflex, and Nylth eagerly buries a second finger inside, curling both to stroke at soft, intimate depths. Her legs tense, thankfully steadied by the body atop her, and Cash’s skin blossoms with the heat in every capillary, flowing from the skin under Nylth’s palm on her crotch all the way up to her neck, lapping at her ears like sunlight in her veins. She takes another halting breath. Her shoulders hitch as she presses her body against Nylth, who impetuously bears down on her, two sets of fingers ministrating with building rhythm.

Nylth shudders, practically squeaking out a drawn murmur of ecstasy as she arches her back, teeth bared, fingers slowing. The first drop of sweat races from Nylth’s hairline; she slicks it back, grinning. Just as Cash begins to see stars crowding in from the edges of her vision, though, Nylth rights herself, plucking both hands from their resting points to flank Cash’s shoulders and heave herself up. Legs bend up to rest against Cash’s torso, and Nylth hums with contentment-- Cash tries to protest as the fog clears from her mind, but all she can produce is a series of imploring drones, rumbling from the back of her throat, insistent and strained. But Nylth smiles with pursed lips. “S’okay, we’re not done yet. Just revved up, ready for the main event. Still comfy?”

Cash blinks besotten eyes slowly, grappling with the sudden withdrawal. She redoubles her grumbling when Nylth stands, but takes the opportunity to let taut muscles relax in her neck, shoulders, legs. Nylth tosses her pants aside, and draws Cash’s off to set in her coat likewise.

She turns away, legs crossed, brandishing the most alluring view yet, round hipcurve swaying as she digs in the lower drawers of the vanity. “Ah-ha!”

She straightens up, tossing a uniquely salacious glance over one shoulder. “Found it.”

As Nylth turns, Cash’s addled, drenched mind takes a solid moment to process the objects in each of her lover’s hands: A bundle of what look like straps of leather, replete with buckles, adjustments, cloth strips. The dildo, she recognizes, averageish in size, cylindrical, with barely a bulb just at the tip. The leather of its exterior is dyed blue, just a shade lighter than Nylth’s skin. This somehow amuses Cash in the seconds it takes to consider the implications. But when she has, her knees meet atop the bed, as though she could subdue some devilish plan through modest pose alone.

Nylth rolls her eyes. “Remember to breathe, o rigid one. You’ve gone pale as a winter hare. And make sure your wrists don’t chafe, I’d hate for you to hurt yourself.” She slides off her sweater while she speaks, tossing it into the floor. She wears no bra, blue breasts diminutive and plain, accented by smallish, deep-black nipples.

Cash sighs, squeezing her eyes shut and willing the tension in her arms to ease. She has been, she notes, pulling on them at times, though they’re not exactly sore yet, merely slightly reddened. Gingerly, she wraps steadying fingers around the bars of the bedframe, hopeful to diffuse a bit of the strain.

“Very good.” When Cash reopens her eyes, Nylth has pieced the objects together, pert blue member now pressed through a rubber gasket in the center of the leather harness. But rather than putting it on herself, Nylth climbs atop the bed once more, and peels down Cash’s underpants with a thumb. She motions for Cash to raise her hips from the bed, a command complied with demurely; Nylth arranges the straps beneath, and lowers her back down, clasping and adjusting them such that the toy rests squarely against her clitmound, erected outward as if to salute the sun.

Nylth tosses a leg over Cash’s stomach, and grins a self-satisfied grin. She raises her body up, enough that Cash can see her hand as splayed fingers take to the arc of the blue toy and position the head against Nylth’s awaiting opening. Her body takes in the girth of it, inch by inch; each time Nylth bucks or shifts in acquiescence, the leather base grinds against Cash’s crotch, burying itself insistently against her clitoris. Cash’s midsection rolls with the weight of the woman bearing down on her privates. She struggles to flex her arms again, mind already flaring with renewed heat.

Nylth casts her mouth wide, pitched moan escaping her lips, but with careful fingers she spreads herself to usher the length of the pseudocock into her body. She tosses her head back with a noise of triumph, slicked black hairs tossing up from her forehead. She leans forward to press her slight breasts into Cash’s, trading salty sweat, and her chin bends down. She curves short blue fingers around Cash’s neck, just behind the ear. Stomachs touch. Nylth raises her ass into the air, sliding enough of the length out of her body to invite Cash to press up and rejoin their pelvises. A hand runs underneath her rear, encouraging the same.

Cash thrusts, and Nylth’s whole body shakes, wracked with each movement. She does it again, building to a slow rhythm.

“You...” Nylth pants, barely keeping herself up by the elbows. She draws her lips close to Cash’s ear, close enough for each syllable to caress the side of her face with lush breath. “Fucked up, cowboy.”

Pinpricks rush up Cash's neck, low voice thrumming in her ear like a bolt of lightning. She steadies herself, swallows, her eyes trained on Nylth's tense features.

“You let me go, that night in the town cells. You finally had me, but you just let me escape. You threw away your whole career, for me.” Blue thighs slick with mingling arousal, Nylth bears herself down again, driving the toy against both of their bodies.

“You said you loved me.” Breathy voice unhindered by her hips’ continued sway, Nylth furrows her brow, red eyes squeezing shut. “And I believe you. I think you do love me, inescapably.” Her finger trails against Cash’s nipple again, dragging another low groan from Cash’s throat, and Nylth plays her teeth along the length of her neck.

“But I-” Nylth’s chin falls to her chest, tits heaving with breaths panted through her open mouth. “I’ve never loved anyone before. Never been safe enough to get the chance.” She sucks air between her teeth, steadies herself with a hand under Cash’s back. She lowers herself, bracing Cash's torso with her forearms.

“Until now.” Nylth’s whole arms cling to the gray form beneath her chest as each stroke drives deeper, bodies swaying in harmony. “And I can’t _fucking_ believe you did this to me. I could just _kill_ you for this, you know. I used to be-” she interrupts herself, mouth splayed, wordless, letting Cash’s panting breaths bathe her in warm air. “-I was invincible. Nobody got in.”

A tear forms in the corner of Nylth’s black-lined eye, still closed tight. “Nobody ever got in. I did what I had to do. That’s why I ran from you.” She clenches her teeth, brings her face to bear towards Cash’s again, still lain body to body, rocking and tossing with each movement.

Two fingers sneak beneath the cusp of the leather harness, touch themselves sweetly against Cash’s clit again, massaging it. Cash moans, freely, belting breathless need, shoulders beginning to shake and mount towards inevitable climax. “That’s why I had to shut you up before I could even fucking tell you. I can’t believe you knew it first, that you had the strength to say it before I even knew.”

Nylth buries her teeth into Cash’s sternum, watching her strain against her bonds, growl impotently. Nylth, rapt, tries to finish her thought, barely able to fight back the coming flood. “But when you did, and I finally knew exactly why it had all happened, and I...” she trails off, straining a low, elemental noise into Cash’s ribcage, tears freeflowing now. She rolls her head to the side, neck abutting Cash’s shoulder. “I j-jus’ can’t keep it up anymore. I f-fucking love--”

But her body convulses, quakes flowing from the pit of her belly through her legs, into her arms, desperately trying to keep plucking at Cash’s strings even while she collapses with blinding ecstatic fervor, garbled, writhing. Her wings shudder, her tail coils around both their hips, her knees flex and her whole form tenses against Cash, taking the dildo to the hilt and letting it hold her together, guide her through.

Cash watches the dam burst across Nylth’s body, creeping heat washing over her as she feels her lover come. Before she can register it, her eyes roll back in her head, endless buffeting of touch and blood-fire and insisting fingers finally boiling over in her chest. At first, it threatens to uproot her from the bed. But restraints and quivering blue form pin her in place, ride her through the bucking fury, the starbursts detonating in her vision. Nylth’s fingers oblige until she comes to rest again, and Cash unclenches her jaw, flutters her eyes, readjusts to the dark of the room.

Nylth rolls her hips forward, panting. The dildo pops free of her body, and she grumbles with satisfaction. “Mnnnnnnnnngh,” she intones.

“Pfleh,” Cash agrees, expulsing the moist sock from between her lips onto the pillow. Nylth crawls up, one armlength at a time, and reaches up gingerly, fingers peeling apart Cash’s grip to pluck the handcuff keys out of it. She unfastens Cash’s wrists, tossing the cuffs to the floor. Nylth thumbs at them, bringing Cash’s arms back down to her sides, checking for warmth and flexion, examining the light grooves where metal had rested against skin. Satisfied, she takes each in her own hands, and plants them on her rump with a wan smile.

“I do, y’know.” Nylth says, face flat to Cash’s collarbone. “But I have to know if you still will, after all's said and done. You've got your duties, but that doesn't change things, not for me.”

They lie together, for a while, in silence, lingering sweat drying in the humid budoir. Nylth asks Cash if she needs to remove the strap-on, but Cash shrugs. Nylth hooks a leg onto Cash’s stomach.

Some time later, a tear rolls down Nylth's cheek, and Cash daubs it away with the back of her thumb.

Cash, every time she takes a breath, still feels the glow, like there's a light shining in her chest that will never go out. She wraps an arm around Nylth's shoulder, and draws her closer. She feels her own eyes well with tears, and struggles to blink them free. “I thought I’d lost you. It tore me up, inside, when I realized I’d never see you again. But you’re still here.”

“Yeah, well. You’re not rid of me that easily.” Nylth chuffs, and Cash gives a single low laugh. But she watches Nylth turn away, watches her face grow distant as she silently tries to erect the boundaries again, to let the stone walls she detonated in her confession protect her once more.

"Talk to me, honeysuckle.” Cash brushes a sweaty forelock, drooping out of Nylth’s mohawk, from in front of her eye, and smiles. “It's okay, you're safe."

Nylth chuckles. "Not particularly, but here goes. I… just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"Fer what?" Cash considers for a moment, in the silence before Nylth speaks again. Could be too many things, really, from cracking her head too hard on the table, the runaround she's given Cash for the better part of a year, tying her up in a basement, or who knows what.

"For laughing at you, the other night," Nylth replies. "I knew how you felt, and you said it out loud, and I just scoffed, and…" she mimes taking flight from land with a flat hand. "I just took off. I should've said something, then, at least acknowledged your feelings, but I--"

She sniffles into the crook of an arm. But Cash squeezes her shoulder, smiling broadly. "You did what you had to do. Just like I did what I had'ta in telling you. It's alright, I get it."

Nylth takes a loud, wet _snrrnk_ through her nose, and locks eyes with Cash. "Hoo, fuck. You're not gonna like what I have to do next, then."

Cash almost tenses up, but breathes, remembering Nylth's promise. She waits.

"(Gond, I hate this softy shit. See what you've made me do,)" Nylth murmurs, clearing another tear from her eye. "I have to kill the Marshall. If he doesn't end up dying by my hand, I still know his type too well. He won't let it go until he ends up dead, and I'll do what I have to do."

Cash's glare wanders while Nylth speaks, but now she nods, jaw clenched. "Good."

Nylth blinks. "Huh?", she asks, voice quiet.

"He has it coming to him. That son of a bitch. Ever since… I really shouldn't tell you this, hell. But did you hear what happened over in Tenpenny Valley, year before last? What he did to that school full'a kids?"

Nylth shakes her head.

"In that case, we'll have to find another evening to ruin with that particular tale. He's a vengeful, cruel, greedy little worm. Whatever happens it's too good for him."

Nylth turns her head down, then, to nuzzle Cash's clavicle. "Thank you, officer… for understanding, then."

"I love you, Nylth."

“I love you too, Cash.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a JOKE ALTERNATE ENDING for the story featured in the previous chapter.
> 
> It is not canon to the rest of the story. (Yes, I wrote a non-canon alternate ending to my own AU. Yes, I _have_ gone mad with power.)

_Cash unclenches her jaw, flutters her eyes, readjusts to the dark of the room._

_Nylth rolls her hips forward, panting. The dildo pops free of her body, and she grumbles with satisfaction. “Mnnnnnnnnngh,” she intones._

Nylth finally peels her cropped sweater from her torso, lashed with sweat. Her breasts hang free, aided by gravity, and she presses herself against Cash again with an accomplished sigh, nuzzling her cheek against a boob. “That was loads of fun, thank you.”

Cash tilts her head to one side, dislodging the besotten nylon from her mouth with her tongue. She utters no words, merely groans in agreement, pleased, satiated.

Nylth leisurely takes the keys from Cash’s hand and unfastens the cuffs. Cash rubs her wrists one after the other, letting the light ringmarks settle. She plants her palms affirmatively on Nylth's hip and side.

The smaller woman closes her eyes, nestles. The musty room hangs with afterglow and the smell of sweat and mothballs.

Eventually, Nylth laughs to an errant thought. “You remember that time, when Gandryl was convinced the cat had become haunted and tried to perform an exorcism? I still can’t believe he didn’t even consult me. The little shit.” Cash shares her chuckle, but frowns.

“How much longer’ve we got this place?” Cash asks. She pauses. “I guess it’s only been a couple days.”

“Oh, six more days, yeah. This is only day three.”

“I'm surprised. Felt like I’d have to take my time feeling it out. But I gotta say, these things-- what’d they call’em-- they’re so lifelike, it really sells it. Helps get’ya into the mood. Well, into the role, y’know what I mean.”

“Automatons? Something like that. Robosapients, maybe. The Eastern Continental Corporation has done some real wonders with them, the reactions, the faces. Even for something as silly as a theme park. Glad we got to try it out, ‘cuz we needed a break.”

“Never thought I’d be this relaxed, not after what we been through. Just lovely.” Cash smiles down at Nylth’s resting face.

Nylth half-shrugs, arm rubbing up against Cash’s side. “Mnh. I mean, I’m just glad we can take our time, yeah? It’s not like it was a cheap honeymoon, but the Keth Company’s been doing well enough, and Gandryl can handle the affairs of the ship as well as anybody.”

“Y’say that,“ Cash jibes, “but who knows if there’ll even be a Gale’s End when we get back. He mighta finally burned the place down.”

“Well, we’ve got a week before they pick us up, so may as well make the most of it even so. Whaddaya say, lawbringer?”

Cash plants a long, wet kiss on Nylth’s forehead, causing her wife to laugh and purse her lips. “Can’t say I disagree, my li’l outlaw. Shoot, I just love that haircut on you.”

“S’a bombass haircut.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The joke is that we roleplay Cash and Nylth, who are ‘roleplaying’ their AU variants, who themselves must roleplay as cops ‘n’ robbers and forbidden lovers, as needed. Insufferable, really.


End file.
